Brian D. Fath, Ph.D. – bfath@towson.edu
Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, Towson University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Senior Research Scholar, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria

}Course Description:
◦This course deals with the relationships between human society and natural ecosystems as they
relate to the sustainability of both.  Relevant scientific, socio-economic, and ethical issues will
be addressed in connection to current events such as global climate change, energy, conservation,
agriculture, and cities.
◦
}Grade evaluation (points available):
◦Presentation (50), Reflections/Homework (50), Participation (50), Paper (100), Final Exam (150) =
Total (400)

specific readings from Encyclopedia of Ecology, 2nd Edition, 2019, Fath (editor), Elsevier









}
}
}
}Atmosphere
}Lithosphere
}Hydrosphere
}Biosphere
}
}Noosphere (sphere of human thought; nous – Greek for mind) also called anthroposphere
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/Atmosphere-Biosphere-Hydrosphere-Lithosphere.png

Homework – identify 1 mineral element that is used in the making of your smart phone, describe
where it comes from and the extraction methods to get it.  What happens to it at the end of the
product life?

}See how things are connected and interrelated
}
}Complex – many parts, many interactions
}Adaptive – respond and change
}Systems – set of parts interacting together to function as a whole
}

}“…is, strictly speaking, not a theory of systems, but of system-environment distinctions.” Moeller
2006, p. 40
system
Environment
C:\Users\bfath\Desktop\photo.JPG
“If you want to make an apple pie from scratch,
first you must make a universe.” -- Carl Sagan

}What is part of your question and what is not?
}
}How you determine this first part largely determines the answers the question
Every system is a process

www.thwink.org/sustain/glossary/EventOrientedThinking.htm






Conventional response to crop pest is spraying pesticide designed to kill that insect.  Imagine a
perfect pesticide that kills all target insects and which has no side effects on air, water, or
soil.
Is using this pesticide likely to make the farmer better off?
Representing the thinking used by those applying the pesticides would look like this:
Pest-Insects simple
Unfortunately, often crop damage gets worse in following years and the pesticide that seemed so
effective does not help.
Pest management example

>

E.g., the pest was controlling another insect population, either by predation or competition. The
effective pesticide eliminates the control that those insects were applying on the population of
the other insects. Then non-target insect populations explode and cause more damage than the
insects killed by the pesticide.
Pest-Insects system

In other words, the action intended to solve the problem actually makes it worse because unintended
side effects change the system & end up exacerbating the problem.


}Acid precipitation/rain
}Ozone depletion
}Eutrophication
}Global climate change
}Automobile dependency
}…
}All of today’s major environmental problems emerge from yesterday’s solutions.
}

}Input-Output models
}
}Feedback
}
}Time lags
}
}Exponential growth
}
}Irreversibility
}
}

1)Human Population
2)Sustainability
3)Global Perspective
4)Urban Systems
5)People and Nature
6)Science and Values

}World 7,732,909,210
http://www.paulchefurka.ca/World%20Population.JPG


http://globaia.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/the_anthropocene_igbp_globaia1.jpg



http://www.margaretwille.com/home/images/28.jpg



}Resource Harvest
◦continuous supply for an unlimited or specified amount of time
}Ecosystem
◦able to maintain its functions
}Economy
◦maintains its level of activity in spite of its use of environmental resources
}Development
◦“ensure that humanity meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs.”  Gro Harlem Brundtland, 1986

}max number of individuals of a species that can be sustained by an environment without decreasing
the capacity of the environment to sustain that same amount in the future.
http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/4159/images/Figure1.jpg

}Civilization can change the entire planet’s environment
}Spaceship earth


http://globaia.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/gts1.jpg



The Blue Marble from Apollo 17
}Dec. 7, 1972 – Apollo 17


}In developed countries 75% of population live in urban areas and 25% in rural areas; in developing
countries about 40% are urban
}
}Globally about 54% in urban areas; it is expected that 70% of world population will be urban by
2050
}
}Environmental organizations have often focused on wilderness, endangered species, and natural
resources.  Although they remain important, more emphasis on urban areas is needed




https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Earthlights_dmsp_1994%E2%80%931995.jpg



}Principle of Environmental Unity –
◦Everything affects everything else
}Things we get from nature: Ecosystem Services
}Unintended consequences – today’s problems were yesterday’s solutions
}

}Science is process of discovery
}Science is one way of looking at the world
}Scientists rely on critical thinking

}Utilitarian – survival or economic
}Ecological – essential to larger life support systems
}Aesthetic – our appreciation of nature’s beauty
}Moral – environment has a right to exist
http://www.uvm.edu/giee/default1.png

Does Nature have rights?

}Why a new code of ethics?
◦New effects on nature
◦New knowledge about nature
◦Expanding moral concern
–People-people relations
–People-group relations
–People-nature relations
}
}Land Ethic – A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of
the biotic community.  It is wrong when it tends otherwise (Aldo Leopold, 1949).

}Humans are part of the biosphere;
}We are living organisms like other animals in many respects, but
◦we have an advanced social organization, and
◦the ability to extract and use energy and resources that characterizes us and our impacts on the
planet.
}That does not make us independent from the environment though

}anticipate the long-range environmental consequences of human actions
}avoid disastrous surprises from the environment
}generate ideas for dealing with environmental problems; and, in general
}maintain a liveable and sustainable relationship with the environment.
}

}Pick a food of your choice and draw a system diagram of how it interacts with you and the
environment


}A set of components or parts that function together to act as a whole